Seven Extraordinary Years
by inmcc
Summary: Teddy Lupin's adventures in Hogwarts! JK Rowling gave us one of the characters of the second generation of the Marauders story, so I'm going to give you the second! Filled with Magic and Adventure, I hope you'll enjoy it! (Excuse any mistakes in language).
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: As you have probably noticed this will be an HP fanfic (as I've just noticed I've never done one), based on the character Teddy Lupin and some of his friends – yet to be named. I shall remind you that most of the places and characters mentioned here belong to J.K. Rowling, aka The Queen. Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoy and review!**

**Best, Is.**

**TEDDY**

Well, hello there. My name is Teddy Lupin and I've just finished my first grade at Hogwarts. But I'm getting ahead of myself – you probably want to know what happened in such a fantastic year right? So let's go back to late August 2009, at precisely seven thirty in the morning.

"TEDDY LUPIN, GET YOUR LAZY ASS OUT OF BED!" Don't think that's how Grandma wakes me up every morning; she's usually a lot nicer. But I'd been awake for a couple hours already, so I jumped out of bed immediately when she called.

The living room smelled like freshly made pancakes and lemonade juice. I jogged to the table, too excited to merely walk, and reached for the still warm pancakes. My fingers never met them though, as Grandma casted a freezing spell from the kitchen.

"Don't you dare touching that food before you've taken your shower," she threatened me, although her voice was filled with love for me.

I reached for the lemonade instead. And, when she eyed me, I stated:

"You told me not to touch the food, but said nothing about the glass," I said, grinning as I pointed to the cup I was holding.

"You're just like your mother," Grandma said, sighing as she returned her attention to whatever she was doing in the kitchen.

You see, usually I'd be delighted to hear about my parents, but that day it felt like a low punch. That day was the day I was going to buy my very first wand, my first wizarding books, my Hogwarts uniform, and everything else you'd want your parents to see you buy. I drunk the rest of my lemonade and slowly made my way to the bathroom.

I could hear voices coming from the living room when I turned the tap off – Harry must've arrived while I was in the shower. I dressed up as fast as I could, checked if my hair looked exactly as I like it – dark, not to long but not to short either, with the tips turning slightly purplish – and headed to where I knew my pancakes were waiting for me.

"Well look at you!" Harry said, when he noticed me joining them in the living room, "Think you're ready to meet the place that's going to make you famous?"

"Don't know about the famous part, but I've _always _been ready to go to Hogwarts," I replied, my mouth already half-full of toasts, pancakes and strawberry jam.

"Thrust me, Teddy, _you are _famous. I talk by experience."

"Yeah, yeah, you're The Boy Who Lived, Gran hasn't shut about that for the past oh-eleven years. But I'm not you." I didn't want to admit it, but I was a bit afraid that people treated me like they treated Harry Potter when he first came to Hogwarts. Yes, my parents did die at the battle of Hogwarts, however, I was nothing more than an eleven year old boy. "Where's Ginny?"

"She stayed with the kids at home; James gave too many of those Nosebleed Nougats to Albus and we were having some problems stopping it," Harry didn't seem too worried about his younger son though.

"Don't they come with an antidote?" I asked.

"Yeah, but James ate those, the little pranker." I could almost distinguish a smile in my godfather's face. "But it's time for us to go," Harry decided as he stood up.

And so we did. All three of us heading to what would be only the beginning of my magical future (pun intended in the word _magical_).

* * *

**SKYE:**

Of course it had been no surprise when I got my Hogwarts letter. Mom had died alright in the Battle of Hogwarts and I'd inherited her wand, and, despite the fact that both (Muggle) Gran and (Muggle) Gramps had forbidden me from doing magic inside the house, I'd use it plenty of times in my tree house.

Dad worked full time in the Ministry of Magic, in the Department of Mysteries. A respectable job, sure, but he'd so easily get lost in all its awesomeness that he'd so often forget about his own daughter. I couldn't really blame him though, could I? I'd overheard Gran telling Gramps that he'd gotten like that after Mom died. BUT, at least, he could've been there when I went to Diagon Alley for the first time.

But I guess that was too much to wish for. As I sat alone in a subway train that'd hopefully lead me a station near the Leaky Cauldron, I wondered if finally entering the wizarding world would make me feel any more connected to my mom. I didn't know much of her, apart from what I could see in the pictures. I guess one could say that we look alike – same flat dark hair, same light brown eyes, same light skin and same wide eyed expression, as though we were constantly expecting some sort of offensive. On the other hand, she was a lot more muscular than me, thanks to her position as a beater in the Holyhead Harpies; while I was rather thin, or even bony.

I'd got so lost in thoughts that I almost missed the station I was supposed to get out at. According to my father's directions, the Leaky Cauldron was only a couple of blocks away. I held Mom's wand tight in my pocket as I half-ran half-walked towards the famous pub – famous in the Wizarding World anyways.

Once I got the street right, it was pretty easy for me to find the inn, as it was the one store left unnoticed by the Muggles. Inside, I found more Wizards than I'd ever seen together in my life (guess whose dad had never taken her daughter to work? Yep, that's right). Some of them glanced at me weird, as though they were thinking 'why is an eleven year old kid doing here on her own?'; others ignored me completely. Except one, a young boy, who couldn't have been much older than me, with purple striped hair, that pulled who I assumed to be his father's arm and said:

"That must be her!"

The father turned to face me and I nearly jumped out of my skin when I noticed the lightning bolt scar on his forehead – Harry Potter was looking straight at me from the balcony of the pub. I held the wand tighter and slowly made my way towards them, still not sure why they were staring at me.

"You must be Miss Jones," Mr Potter said, once I was close enough for him to shake my hand.

"Yes?" I said; my eyes wandering between the famous wizard and the young boy standing beside him.

Mr Potter laughed at my confused expression.

"I'm Harry, and this is my godson Edward."

"Call me Teddy," the boy said, with a kind smile.

"I'm Skye," Could someone please tell me what on Merlin's beard was going on?

"We know," Harry said, "Your father asked us to meet you here. Did he not tell you?"

"Huh… No, not really. He doesn't tell me much these days." _Or any other day_, I thought.

"Well, he must've forgotten. The Department of Mysteries is no easy place to work on," Harry said, as though he was remembering old times – which he probably was, as I remembered reading somewhere about a break in in the Department of Mysteries that involved Harry Potter and some of his friends, "But you two must be dying to buy your stuff. So, I will show you how to get into Diagon Alley and then I'll leave you too to have fun." And even though Dad _had _told me which brick to touch in order to enter the magical alley, I kept quiet and followed them.

Nevertheless, nothing could have prepared me for what was about to come – as soon as Teddy and I stepped into the grey paved street, I felt the so waited feeling I'd been hoping to feel for eleven years.

* * *

**TEDDY**

For someone whose father worked on the Ministry of Magic, Skye looked a little too overwhelmed with the view.

"You've never been here?!" I asked, astonished.

She simply shook her head, too busy trying to memorize every detail around her to speak.

"Why not?" I asked, taking her arm and leading her towards Gringotts, the wizards' bank. I wondered how she was not dying with the heat, dressed in a dark red shirt that went by her elbows. She finally looked at me.

"I live with my grandparents," she said, shrugging, "they're Muggles."

"What happened to your mum?" I asked, wondering if that was such a hard subject for her as it was for me.

Once more, she shrugged. "She died."

For a moment I was shocked with the way she said it – directly. But then I thought about it and I came to the conclusion that trying to deny it wouldn't make things any better.

"I'm sorry to hear that," I said. "If it makes you feel any better, I've never met either of my parents."

She stopped walking and eyed me from head to toe.

"Why on Merlin's hat would that make me feel any better?" She asked, astonished.

It was my time to shrug then, and I noticed we both did it when we didn't feel comfortable.

"I don't know. Because at least one of your parents is still alive?"

She kept walking towards the now visible bank, and I followed her.

"Sometimes I wish they were both dead," she stated, when I caught up with her, close enough to hear.

I decided that was enough of the topic and we made our way quietly – well apart from all the other Hogwarts students running past us to get their brand new stuff for the year - to the bank. There though, I had to elbow Skye for staring at every goblin for way longer than what would be considered polite. She 'what?!-ed' me and I rolled my eyes, which seemed to be enough for her to stop with the stares.

My Mom's vault was one of the ancient ones, so we went to Skye's family vault first. I was surprisingly happy to notice that she had plenty of money in her vault, as I too had quite a fortune – it would only make me feel terrible to take her into my vault if she was from one of those families that had to live on second hand stuff. Not that there's anything wrong with that. I mean- It's just- Ugh, forget about it. Soon enough, we were out of the bank and ready to shop.

Thankfully, now it was _okay _to stare. Because Skye literally spent _ages _looking at every shopper and every little thing they sold. Skye told me that she already owned a wand – inherited from her mother – but I still needed one, so we both agreed to go to Olivander's first.

I have to admit that that was the part I was more nervous about – a wizard isn't a wizard until he or she has his or hers own wand. So, as Skye sat in a wooden bench next to the door, I walked towards the balcony, where a man that was beyond old, smiled at me.

"Ah yes, Mr Lupin, I have been waiting your arrival. I hope your Godfather is doing well?"

"Yes, he is." I replied. Harry had warned me about Mr Olivander and his strange way with words.

"And does he still use the wand he bought me? I heard he managed to fix It. Eleven inches, made of holly and had a phoenix feather core?"

"Yes, sir, I believe he does."

"Very good! A powerful wand, yes, very powerful. But so is the wizard! Because in the end, what is a wand without a wizard?"

I was not sure Mr Olivander wanted an answer so I looked at Skye for help, but she was too busy looking at the old man in awe, as though she thought he was bonkers.

"And no need for you to be so quiet, Miss Jones," Mr Olivander turned to her, nearly making her jump out of her skin with surprise. "I see you carry your mother's wand. Hazel, fourteen inches, dragon heartstring core?"

"Yes?" She answered in that confusing way she does.

"Hmm… Curious," Mr Olivander said, returning is attention to me, as though he'd just remembered I'd come here for a wand myself.

"What's so curious?" Skye asked, but she only got her answer after Mr Olivander picked about five or six different wand boxes from the back of the store.

"What is curious," the wand maker said, "is that, strangely, that wand seems to fit you even better than it suited your mother."

Skye took her wand out of her pocket and examined it. Meanwhile, Mr Olivander made me try different wands. I tried one, two, five wands and none of them seemed good enough for me. The sixth wand, which had Thestral tail hair, made appear pink balloons in the form of unicorns when I tried it and even Skye couldn't help but to laugh at me. I eyed her, but she kept laughing, clinging to her stomach as she did.

"Oh well," Mr Olivander said, lost in his own thoughts. "Do not worry, Mr Lupin, there is a wand in here somewhere that belongs to you. It's all about finding it." And with that he entered the back of the store once more, ready to make me try yet another five or six wands, I was guessing. However, when the wand maker came back, nearly ten minutes later, he was only holding one box in his hand. He looked at it funny, as though it had something different and oddly he did not tell me what it was made of before he handed it for me to try it.

I took the wand in my right hand and as soon as I wrapped my fingers around it, I felt its power running across my arm until it reached my heart. When I swung it, bright blue sparks came out of it, and made circles around me until their lights faded.

I couldn't help it but to let out a small "Wow" of amazement.

* * *

**ISAAC**

My parents are the kind of people who get excited over everything, and I really mean _everything freaking thing._ I, on the other hand, having been constantly embarrassed by them, have therefore become a rather lonely and sarcastic person. Is one thing even related to the other? I think so, seeing that if my parents weren't as they are, I wouldn't be as I am either.

So, as you may guess, when my school – I was not sure how to pronounce its name yet, let alone spell it – letter arrived, I hid it for myself for at least two weeks; until eventually I needed to buy my school things at this place called Diagon Alley. That's also where I was standing then, and by then, I mean the time when my parents were paying for my books and my eyes were slowly drifting around the store, thinking '_boring, still boring, ew is that a frog that guy is _petting_?!_' until they lay on these two kids.

Neither of them could've been much older than me. The girl was so short, that I wouldn't even say she was _eleven_. But she must've have been as she was buying school books as well. What caught my attention was not what she was buying though. It wasn't even her friend's hair – seriously, what guy dyes the ends of his hair purple? -, and it sure wasn't the way they seemed so uncomfortable around each other even though they were clearly shopping together. No. It was the girl's eyes. And I don't mean their colour, even though I must say they were this remarkable tone of blue. I mean the way they lasted just long enough on each book to memorizing its size, texture, font, etc. In other words, it was as though she wanted to remember every single detail of what surrounded her. I wondered if that's how I looked when I got my hands on a book as well.

But of course, no one could tell.

You see, I love reading, I really do. I just don't like other people to know I love reading, because a guy who likes to read just isn't a guy other guys would want to hang out with. But then again, I _was _a lonely person, so what difference did it make whether I looked like the guy you would like to have some fun with or not?

"Hey kiddo, what else is left for us to buy?" I was brought back to reality by my dad, who so embarrassingly called me 'kiddo'.

"My name's Isaac, dad." I said, as we made our way out of the crowded store. Once outside, I checked the list of needed school material I'd been given. "Apparently, my clothes _and _an owl."

You might be wondering why the emphasis. Well, there are a few reasons in which the first is my parents would rather I had a cat than an owl. Yet, I _did not _want a cat. I wanted an owl. I read once that owls were the smartest animals on Earth, which is why they were the symbol of the Greek goddess Athena. So, if I were to have a pet, I was going to have a smart one and certainly not one that left fur all over my clothes.

"Fair enough," dad said with a sigh, "an owl will be."

So we waited for Mum before we headed to the animal store. I hadn't noticed the two kids coming out of the Flourish and Blotts and was surprised to find them in the pet shop.

"-exactly are we here?" The girl was saying.

"Because a wizard needs an owl!" The boy answered. I noticed that he sounded pretty confident talking about wizard stuff. I figured that he must have been born amongst the wand users.

"Why don't _you_ buy an owl, then?"

"I _told _you! My family already has plenty of owls. There'll always be one at Hogwarts."

I walked a little closer to them, as I pretended to look at the different types of owls, which hooted in an annoying choir.

"Well, then I can just use my dad's," the girl pointed out and for a moment I felt disappointment filling me. I was convinced that the girl was a Muggle born, just like me; yet I'd been clearly wrong. "Besides, it's not like I have that many people to mail, like a certain oh-I'm-so-famous-because-I'm-Harry-Potter's-godson person that I know."

Who the hell was Harry Potter?

The dyed hair boy seemed hurt by the blue eyed girl's words. "For Merlin's sake, just buy a damn owl."

Just before my father interrupted me, I watched the girl opening her mouth, but then closing it again, as though she too had realized that she'd hurt the guy.

"Have you chosen one already, Isaac?"

"I'm torn between two of them," I lied, trying to listen to what the girl was saying now, but Dad wouldn't let me focus on them.

"Are you sure you don't want a cat?" He said, still trying to get me to join the hairballs' club.

"I am, dad," I said, "Just give me a moment and I'll tell you which one I want."

This time, noticing that the girl was wandering around the store, looking at owls, while the boy asked for, I assume, owl food at the counter, I finally allowed myself to appreciate the beautiful animals that stood trapped in cages all around me.

A few minutes later, this happened:

"I want that one!" The girl said.

"The black one!" I said at the exact same time, pointing at the same dark baby owl the girl was delightfully staring at.

We both eyed each other, awkwardly.

"You can have it," I declared, after the staring became too hard to sustain.

"No really, I didn't even want an owl in the first place," the girl said with a shrug.

"No need for any of that!" The man behind the counter stated with a smile as he approached us. "You both can have an owl."

"You're not implying that you're going to cut it in half, are you?" I asked.

"Of course not!" The man laughed. "But if you pay enough attention at the owl's surroundings, you'll notice its twin's eyes looking back at you from the darkest corner of its cage."

I did as he said, and surprising, I found two bright blue eyes staring back at me. I couldn't help but to notice how similar they were to girl's eyes.

"I'll keep that one instead then," I said, now more confident about what I wanted that eighty seconds ago when I'd declared I wanted the twin one, which had green eyes, like mine.

**A/N: I changed it so the first chapter is all in the same file. Hope it's alright for you.**


	2. Chapter 2

**_CHAPTER TWO_**

**TEDDY:**

It was late in the night of August 31. I was sleeping at the Weasley's, who so kindly invited me and Grans (along with the Potter family) for dinner to celebrate the beginning of my time at Hogwarts. Godfather Harry, his two sons, Albus and James, and I were sleeping in the living room so the ladies could have the visitors bedrooms. The house was mainly in silent except for Harry's occasional snoring. Everyone was asleep – but not me.

I was holding my new wand in my hands, managing only to distinguish its shape in the dimness that I found myself in. The moment Mr Olivander gave it to me I'd had no idea of how different it was from the other wands he had at his store. 'This one has deeper feelings' the wand maker had told me and Skye, who had finally managed to stop laughing at my unicorn balloons. As you're ought to guess, my first question was how on Earth a wand could have feelings. It was clearly a mistake to pose such question, as it made Mr Olivander start me on a wand making lesson. But after that, he finally told me what was so special about it – its core was made of Veela's hair. I wondered what that said about me.

"You'll have plenty of chances to stare at it in History classes," a voice said from behind me. Harry had stood up to get a glass of water. "They're pretty boring, believe me," he winked, which made me laugh. "However, you'll not have as much time to sleep if you won't stop daydreaming."

"You're probably right," I said, not wanting to tell my Godfather that I was worried about my _wand core _– I doubted any other kid has ever even thought that wand core could be important.

"Then get yourself to sleep. Tomorrow will be a big day." Harry took my wand from my hands and carefully put it back on its box. He shoved my hair and then he too lied down and tried to sleep.

I did not fall asleep until a couple of hours later though – other things bothered me. Back when we were at Diagon Alley, I noticed how often Skye looked at the Quidditch store, yet, when I'd asked her if she wanted to go inside, I could read the panic in her eyes while she said no and pulled me away from it. What could possibly make her so scared about it?

* * *

**SKYE:**

For my own surprise, my dad had the decency of accompanying me to King Cross's station. A star must've been to fall off from the sky.

After I said goodbye to Gran and Gramps, Dad teleported us – excuse me, Apparated us – to a hidden alley near King Cross's station (because taking a train was just too much time for my dad to waste). He too my arm in his hand, firmly but softly, and we made our way to Platform nine and three-quarters. Our only exchange of words was me asking if he was sure he didn't want a car so it would be easier to carry my trolley, and him saying that he didn't.

It was easy to locate the Platform's entrance we were looking for once we got there – it was the place where the most excited people were. If you strained to hear them you'd hear a lot of things like "We're getting late, the train leaves at eleven o'clock!" or "Did you remember to feed your owl?" or even, "Why can't these stupid Muggles just get out of the way?!" In the end, a typical September 1st morning in the World of Magic.

My dad pushed me towards the column I was supposed to trespass.

"Hmm, dad, it looks pretty solid to me. Are you sure you can't just touch a brick and it'll open like the one in the Leaky Cauldron?" My voice trembled a little, but I did my best to keep it steady.

"Yes, I am sure Skye. You have to go through it. But if you're afraid we can just go back home." Was that my dad teasing me? Correction: It was not only a star that must've been to fall off, it was the whole sky!

"I'm not afraid!" I stated, which was a lie. Nevertheless, I held on tighter to my owl's cage and faced the red bricked column. "There's nothing we can't do, right Hootie?" I said to my owl before I ran towards the column, closing my eyes just before the impact that never came. I felt a strange feeling, as though I was running against a blast, and then suddenly, my senses seemed to detect normality again and I heard voices all around me. I opened my eyes just in time to watch Teddy punching my arm.

"Skye!" He said, with a big smile on his face. I couldn't help but to smile myself as well. "Can you believe we're here? Ready to go to Hogwarts?!" He had to shout to make himself heard, but I just nodded as I waited for my father to enter the platform as well. A couple of minutes later, after two blonde twins appeared out of nowhere, he did.

My dad looked around in confusion, as he sought after me. Once he spotted me, he made his way towards us in large steps and addressed to Mr Potter before he addressed me. "Thank you for taking care of her," he said to the dark haired man who looked back at him through his glasses. I couldn't help but to notice that Harry Potter had brought his family with him to say goodbye to Teddy. I wished that many people would come here for me one day.

"Any time Rick," Harry said, "It's a great daughter you have in there."

My dad muttered a thank you before he turned to me.

"Now Skye," he said, as he kneeled before me, so his eyes would be slightly below mine, "I have to go to work, but there's one thing I must tell you first."

I was too astonished to speak. My father nodded and continued speaking.

"I know you think I don't care for you, and I know I haven't been the greatest father, but you must know that I love you and that everything I do is to protect you," I watched the tears forming in his eyes and I wanted to tell him that I knew, deep down I knew, but I couldn't, because I didn't know, not really. He ran his fingers through my dark hair, "You look so much like her and I'm sure you have a great future ahead of you. Just remember to write me every once in a while, alright, sweetheart?" Sweetheart?! But I nodded anyways and with that my father took me in his arms and kissed me gently on the cheeks and on my forehead. "I love you," he said one more time. And this time, I said it back.

* * *

**ISAAC:**

Getting to platform nine and three quarters was my second magical experience since I acknowledged that magic actually existed. The first one had been when I had to try a couple of wands until Mr Olivander, a nice old man that seemed to be a little crazy, found the perfect one for me. It had phoenix feather core and it was made of ash wood. I really liked it, even though I hadn't done much more than staring at it. Which was exactly what I was doing when the train departed.

I'd said my goodbyes to my parents and younger brother only a few minutes before, yet I already missed him. When I'd first gotten the letter I'd been pretty excited about leaving, but only then, as I sat alone in one of train cabins, did I realize how lonelier it would be for me from now on. If I hadn't quite managed to make friends in the non-Magical world, the one I'd known all my life, how the hell was I supposed to make friends in this new one?

I focused on my wand again. I had realized it helped me be less _depressed_. Don't think I'm going to start telling you about my life and going all lame on you now. I just used the word depressed because that's how my mum puts it. You see, she's a psychologist, and for her, the fact that an eleven year old boy would rather stay home and read a good book than go out and play football with a few douchebags (yes I know what that word means), is a clear sign of depression. I liked to think that I simply had good taste. Although she was right. At some point, I did start to miss people.

And it was when that thought crossed my mind that Athena – the name I'd chosen for my magnificent owl - started hooting.

"Hey what's wrong?" I said, forgetting the wand for a moment and taking Athena's wand in my lap so we could both be at eye level.

But she wasn't looking at me. She was staring outside, towards the train's hall. "Is something going out there?" I placed Athena's cage back in the seat and opened the small door so she could come outside. She spread her wings and flew across the cabin before she landed in my shoulder. I took my wand – not really sure why as I had no idea how to use it – and opened the door slightly.

"Let us pass!" I heard a voice that took me a couple of minutes to recognize – it was the guy with the dyed hair that I'd seen back at Diagon Alley.

"I see," another voice said, a voice that I did not know, "not quite as brave when you're famous godfather isn't around?"

"Says the pot to the kettle," the purple dyed hair guy replied, "are you ever without your twin? Or is it a mirror? Your ego is so big that is hard to tell, really."

I heard some movement and almost burst out the door when a voice screamed "Don't you dare hurt him!" but I managed to quietly step out the door instead. They were only a few cabins away and the twins' backs were turned to me. The blue eyed girl had her wand pointed at the one of the guy's neck, closer than I'd ever want a wand to be to my neck.

"Oh what's the matter, Lupin?" One of the twins said, grabbing the girl's wrist. "Are you so afraid that you'll end up like your parents that even a skinny girl protecting you is better than nothing?" I didn't know what had happened to Lupin's parents but I decided I did not like these twins whoever they were. And Athena didn't seem to tell like them either – I could feel her pressuring my shoulder stronger and stronger as though she was containing herself.

I raised my wand. "Maybe not a skinny girl, but a skinny girl _and _skinny boy should do it," I said, hoping the twins couldn't tell my hand was uncontrollably shaking when they turned to face me.

"Oooh, Lupin's made new friends!" The twins were completely indistinguishable, so I couldn't tell which one spoke. "But we'll have enough time to meet!" And with that they entered one of the cabins that stood between me and the other two kids who stared astonishingly at me.

Athena hooted and flew towards her twin's cage that the girl was holding in her hand. I could feel the girl's bright eyes staring right at me as I looked down. "If you want my cabin is empty." I said.

"You're the guy from the owl store!" The girl said.

"That's quite a conclusion," I replied. The girl gave me a look and walked past me, looking inside every cabin until she found an empty one – mine. Athena followed her, while Lupin and I eyed each other. After a while he shrugged.

"Don't mind her," he said as he walked towards me, "Skye's a little moody sometimes. But thanks for what you did."

"It's okay." I said, as we joined Skye in my cabin. "By the way, I'm Isaac."

"Hi Isaac, I'm Teddy and that one is Skye."

Skye rolled her eyes at me and looked the window; I could barely see her holding her wand inside her jacket's pocket. But I smiled to myself anyways; Skye and Teddy Lupin - maybe making friends wasn't as hard as I always thought it would be.

**A/N: Sorry for taking a while to update (school sucks), but I hope you liked this chapter! Feel free to review ;) Best, Is. **


	3. Chapter 3

**_CHAPTER THREE_**

**TEDDY**

"But seriously now," I said, "what house do you guys think you'll get into?"

We were sitting on Isaac's cabin, which I guess now was _our_ cabin, and eating as many chocolate frogs as we could. Skye was beating us by far - she just seemed to never get enough of them!

I was dying to tell her about the "magical piece of paper that your father helped to enchant", as my godfather had put it, but Isaac was with us and I wasn't sure we could thrust him, even if he had just stood up for us, asking for nothing in return.

"House?" Isaac asked, completely oblivious to what I was referring to. The guy seemed so comfortable with us in his tight black jeans and his messy light brown hair that I kept forgetting he was a Muggle born.

"Aw c'mon, you don't even know about the houses. Didn't you even bother to open your books?" For some unknown reason, Skye seemed more in the blink of exploding than usual.

If you're wondering how I knew what the usual were, I'd invited her to hang out with me almost every last day of our holidays, and surprisingly, she went along with it.

What really sucked about it, was that she was like one of those Muggle toys where kids pretend to operate on a guy - you tuched the wrong spot and it goes all buzzing on you. With Skye, it was the exact same thing. You say the wrong thing, and she buzzes even louder than the game, until she eventually leaves.

"Actually, I did. I opened the one that read 'Quidditch Rules and Flying Lessons for Beginners', Isaac snapped, speaking the name of the book in such a grand way, that I almost believed he had done a great, unthinkable thing, instead of having just opened a mere book.

Skye, on the other hand, seemed to have completely lost her interest in the conversation.

I glanced at her hand. Her knuckles were white from holding on so hard to her wand. I recalled what I'd been thinking the previous night about Skye not wanting to go inside the Quidditch store and wondered if she was ever going to tell me what it was that bothered her so much about it.

I turned back to Isaac.

"Okay, so, Hogwarts houses," I started, wondering how on Merlin's robe I was supposed to explain how Hogwarts houses worked to someone who had so recently heard about Hogwarts itself in the first place. "The basic thing that you need to know is that there are four houses. Slytherin, Gryffindor, Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw. Each of them have different... believes. Slytherin believes mostly in ambition. Gryffindor takes the courageous. Hufflepuff the kind and Ravenclaw the intelligent."

"What if you're not any of those?" Spaceship Skye seemed to have landed back on Earth.

"Apparently I'm not the only one who hasn't done his readings," Isaac stated, now grinning, which made it look like he was plotting something, "or else you wouldn't have to ask such question."

"Actually, the thought hadn't crossed my mind before because only now I am wondering of what happens to situations like yours." She replied, one cocked eyebrow and all. "But then again, if you'd opened 'Hogwarts, a History', you'd know that said case is not mentioned there."

"Ugh, History," Isaac said, which made me laugh as it reminded me of Harry's words the previous night.

"I don't think it ever happened." I said. "The Sorting Hat always claims you as part of one of the Houses, even if you don't know you belong there just yet."

"Excuse me," Isaac said, "did you just say The Sorting Hat?"

"Oh for Merlin's deodorant! You really don't know anything, do you?" I burst into laughing at the word deodorant. "Once a first year first arrives at Hogwarts, he or she is sorted into one of the House by a speaking hat, even before he or she gets the chance to have dinner. Which sucks, because I'm starving!"

Even Isaac, who earlier had seemed so determined on keeping an expression that let pass something between boredom and anger, couldn't help himself but to scowl - how was it possible that a skinny girl who had just eaten in less than an hour twice as many chocolate frogs as I could eat in a day, was still hungry?!

* * *

**SKYE**

As soon as we started to feel the train decelerate, an older student knocked cabin's door, opened it, and informed us that we should dress our uniforms and that once the train stopped, and we were ordered to leave, we should look for Hagrid, whoever that was. He did say that we should have no trouble finding him, for whatever reason.

"Oh, yeah, I'd almost forgotten Hagrid is the one who guides first years to Hogwarts! You're guys are going to love him!" Teddy exclaimed as he tried his best to tie his black tie around his neck. I sighed and stepped forward to help him, already in full uniform.

"You know him?" The oh, I'm so gorgeous yet can't pull out a decent smile eleven year old boy asked as the ignorant self that he was. "How?"

"He's good friends with my godfather," Teddy said, with a shrug. "Sometimes when I'm at the Potter's house, he comes over for dinner."

Teddy had updated Isaac on his life with his Grandma and his Godfather, leaving out plenty of details he'd told me on our days together, and not for once mentioning that his parents were dead as he had openly done to me. For some reason, I was pleased with that.

This guy, Isaac, whoever he was, annoyed me deeply for some reason. Maybe it was because he looked so lonely, you _had_ to like him. Or maybe it was because I hated the connection that had been involuntarily formed between us through our owls, who slept happily on their respective cages now.

The train stopped, and as soon as we were told to leave - also being told to leave our pets and trolleys in the train - we ran for the door.

Being tiny and new to this place, we had trouble making our way outside, and we had to hold each other's hands so we wouldn't lose the other two. Of course, being the tiniest, I was told to stay in the middle of our chain, "just to be sure," Teddy had said. I sighed and took one hand from both of them and held them tight in mine.

You see, it's not that I was complaining that I suddenly found myself with two guys that seemed happy to hold my hand - well, actually one of them had stared at my hand like it was made of acid instead of skin before he took it, but Teddy warned me to be kind to Isaac, so I forced myself to stay quiet.

But as I was saying, I wasn't complaining. I just didn't want to be the one in the middle because said position didn't allow me to hold on to my mother's wand. Without it in hand, I was defenceless. And after meeting the twins earlier on, something told me that I was going to need to defend myself inside this school.

"Now c'mon , hurry up first 'ears! This way! C'mon!" The voice that called out for us was male and strong, easy to hear from a big distance.

When I made an effort to look over the crowd of students than ran past me, I was surprised to find out that such effort wasn't actually needed. Slightly more than ten feet away stood a giant man, holding an old candle-light bulb and calling out for first years.

Once we closed the distance between us and the giant man, Teddy let go of my hand, which awkwardly left me holding hands with Isaac, and he ran to hug the giant.

"Hagrid!" He shouted, to make himself heard over the crowd. "Have you grown smaller since I last saw you?"

Smaller?!

"Ah ah ah!" Hagrid laughed, "I don't think so. But look at you! Have you grown over the summer? And who are your friends? They look good together."

Suddenly I realized I was still holding hands with Isaac. In my defence, we'd both been too astonished with the view to notice our hands still laced on each other. I let go of him immediately, as I felt my blood rushing in my cheeks.

"These are Skye and Isaac. Skye's dad is friends with Harry, and we met Isaac on Diagon Alley. His owl and Skye's owl are twins! And..." I decided it was time to step in on the conversation.

"I think Hagrid got the idea, Teddy," I said, stepping on his foot.

"Yeah, Skye's starving... When can we go to Hogwarts?"

"Just a moment!" And then he got his light up and swung it, "First 'ears! This way!"

With that, he stared walking and we followed the bright light that stood some good three feet above us.

If you're interested in knowing how first years get from Hogsmeade train station to the actual School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, I'm afraid I'm not your guy. Seriously, for a first time, it sucked. All my hopes were in the fact that I'd never have to ride those boats again (Hint: I get seasick. And of course I had to throw up all the chocolate frogs I'd eaten on the train in front of all my new classmates. Who would want to befriend me now? The girl who puked when she first got here? Good job, Skye).

So we were standing in this sort of lobby. We climbed the very entrance stairs of Hogwarts and were now being the target of water balloons that were perfectly aimed at us by a poltergeist. Apparently it was tradition.

"Does he never get enough of it?" I asked, as I crouched yet another time so I wouldn't be hit by a water balloon.

"Not really," Teddy says, "We're the only amusement he has."

"That must be lonely," Isaac declared, more to himself than to us. I was about to let myself pity him - that's the kind of effect that he had on people that I was talking about earlier -, when a water balloon hit him right in the forehead.

"I think he heard you," I said, laughing, but still not amused enough to not notice how cute he looked when his wet hair glued to his forehead, and to think 'What is wrong with me?! Since when do I look at boys?!'

* * *

**ISAAC**

Getting splashed in the face wasn't funny but at least I hadn't thrown up in the lake. Of course, neither I nor Teddy had laughed then, but the others did, urged by the twins. I decided I did not just dislike these guys, I hated them.

However, as I stood in this small room near the dining hall - or so I'd been told - the last thing I was thinking about was the twins. Yeah, sure, they were mean, but I'd have plenty of time to put up with them once I'd been sorted into a house. That's what I was really concerned about.

Ravenclaw seemed to be my best choice, but Teddy had said he wanted to go to Gryffindor. So what if he and Skye went to one house and I went to another? So much for that friendship. On the other hand, I'd noticed that Skye also hadn't stated which house she wanted to be part of. I wondered what was going through her mind now.

She seemed to be arguing with the same problem as I was. She was too still, holding on tight to her wand the way she did. Sometimes she would open her mouth as though she was about to say something, but then she would close it again before she got the chance to say anything at all.

That was until a guy entered the room. He looked like a professor, except he seemed quite clumsier than a professor should be, and he had dirt on his hair.

"Hello first years, welcome to Hogwarts! My name is Neville and I'm going to be your Herbology teacher. But I bet that for now you're more concerned about you dinner, right?" There were a few 'yes's' and some shy laughing too, but most of us kept quiet. "Then follow me," Professor Neville said.

And we did.

The dining hall was bigger than I could have possibly imagined and the sky was its roof. It was warm and full of older students that laughed and talked as we made our way towards the farthest table, where the professors sat. In front of the table there was a bench where a dark wizard hat lay. Suddenly, the hat started singing.

It sang a long and beautiful song about Hogwarts and its houses that I now wish to have memorized. Yet, I was too nervous, seeing the moment of my sorting approach that I barely heard what the hat said.

Once it stopped singing, the dining hall was in deep silence. A woman, who sat at the centre of the professor's table, stood up and spoke.

"Hello and welcome to those who are standing in this school for the first time. For those who have been here before, welcome back! We're here for a new year and I hope you'll all contribute to the well function of this school. Unless, of course, you enjoy punishment." At this time the grey haired woman, dressed in green robes, glanced at a few students who smiled back at her. "But now it's not the time to talk about said things. We shall now sort our new students to what will be their new families and their new homes!" She flicked her wand and a scroll appeared before her. "I used to call the students before I was headmistress and I'm hoping to continue calling them until I die." At this, the older students shouted in a standing ovation. It lasted only a moment, until our headmistress raised her hand and they quieted, but it was that small glimpse of energy and excitement that made me finally feel like there was nowhere else I'd rather be.

"Adams, Peter," was the first to be called. A red head boy that got sorted into Hufflepuff - definitely the house I'd never be sorted into. Nice and kind isn't really my thing.

More students were called, some sorted into Slytherin, some into Gryffindor, others into Ravenclaw, and others yet, joined Peter Adams in the Hufflepuff dining table.

Skye was the first from the three of us to be sorted. She got into Gryffindor, which made me even more nervous - that put my only two possible friends in the same House (assuming that Teddy got into Gryffindor as well). What if I got sorted into a different one? I wished Athena were here with me, she always seemed to give me answers even if she didn't even speak.

Every time a student was sorted, there was an applause and at some point I was trying to decide which table applauded louder. That, until Teddy was called.

"Lupin, Edward." Teddy showed nothing but confidence as professor Neville placed the Sorting Hat on his head. The same way it happened with nearly every other student, the hat seemed to take its time to think, before he announced "GRYFFINDOR!"

Teddy's smile was wider than one would think humanly possible, as he half walked, half jogged towards the Gryffindor's table, full or students who greeted him with a few friendly punches in the arm.

As the moment of my sorting approached, I thought about what Teddy had told me on the train - each House seemed to take in not those who proved themselves worth it, but those who believed in their believes. Those who valued the same values. I wondered what I believed in, deep down.

However, and apparently, I wondered for too long, as Professor Macgonnal, our headmistress pronounced "Reed, Isaac," loud and firmly.

Slowly, I made my way towards the small bench that awaited me, sat on it, and felt a big hat being dropped on top of my head. It was so big it covered my eyes, so I saw nothing but darkness. Then, the hat spoke.

"Ah ahhh," it said; not like it was laughing at me but more like it was thinking, "quite side-minded, are we? Torn between finally having friends and proving yourself to be intelligent enough to be amongst others like you?"

I felt like the Hat was expecting me to answer him, but I had the feeling that no one else could hear what it had said, that it spoke only in my mind. I decided to keep quiet.

"Hmm, if you're so able to decide to not look crazy by answering me, how come you're having so much trouble deciding who you are?"

This time I thought, 'I know who I am, I'm just afraid of whether other people think if that's good or bad.'

"And you think just sitting there, being the wallflower that you are is going to help you figuring anything out?" But the Hat barely gave me any time to think of an answer before it said, "I think it's about time you stop being the side character and start telling your own story, Isaac. So, tell me, what is it going to be about?"

This time, I needed no time to think before I whispered, "It's going to be about a survivor - a hero." And I never regretted saying that, as it rewarded me with the very first smile Skye ever gave me (I didn't even know she could smile) when the Sorting Hat shouted "GRYFFINDOR!" and I felt my new, big family applauding as it welcomed me.

What they did not know though, is that I'd sorted myself.


	4. Chapter 4

**_CHAPTER FOUR_**

**TEDDY**

I think I never really understood what my Godfather meant when he talked about Hogwarts. He'd always said great things about it, even if he hadn't got to accomplish his seven years of it, and yeah, I'd always agreed that it must've been great to learn new spells every day and go on adventures. But that wasn't it, and I'd not quite understood it until the moment I sat in that dining hall with Isaac and Skye sitting beside me and arguing about which on tasted better – the apple pie or the pudding. Only then did I see that it was about the friend you made and that you'd be stuck with for seven years whether you liked it or not. And that simple thought made me smile.

"Hey guys," I said, low enough that only the two of them could hear me. It took a few seconds for them to stop arguing before they looked at me, though. "There's something I need to tell you about but I can't be here."

"So where?" Skye asked. "It's not like we know the school yet."

"Once dinner ends we're going to our common room, where our dorms are. I believe that once everyone's asleep, we're good to talk."

"And does it really have to be tonight? I'm sort of tired," Skye complained.

"Believe me, being tired is going to be the last of your concerns tonight," Isaac replied, his usual smile turning into a grin.

"And what's that supposed to mean?"

"Well after all you ate, I'd be sincerely surprised if you didn't have a stomach ache."

"Are you calling me fat?!" I could notice Skye's hand reaching for her wand, and I thought 'Uh-Oh.'

"I didn't call you anything but if the cap fits…"

Skye had completely lost her temper and dug her wand out of her pocket. As she pointed it at Isaac, students around us started to stare at her.

I grabbed her hand as fast as I could and pushed it down to her lap.

"Would you two please stop being childish?" I inquired. They both gave me an angry look, so kept going. "Thank you. Now, yes, Skye, I'd be very happy if you'd be so kind to honour me with your presence tonight. However, if you think you can't make it, I'll just show Isaac this thing and I'll tell you about it later." I knew she'd never agree to that.

"Show, huh?" She asked.

"Yeah. It's important."

"She seemed to think for a while, as though wondering if I'd actually keep my word, given the case that she decided to not go.

"Okay, fine." She finally said. "I'll meet to you at one."

And she didn't say another word until we got to Gryffindor's tower, up in the seventh floor, and even then it was just to ask me how I was expecting her to put up with '_that guy.'_

* * *

**SKYE**

Fine, I'd made the wrong move pointing my wand at a guy who didn't have the smallest clue of how much power such object held. But he was _just _impossible. Everything he did and said seemed to have been carefully thought through in order to provoke you, but then he was just so innocent and sincere that you _had _to take it all personally.

And that's exactly what I was doing – taking it all personally – as I lied on my bed in the girls' dorm room and waited for the hours to pass.

At a certain point, I started wondering if he hadn't really called me anything but was just concerned for me. I wondered if maybe Isaac was like my dad, who kept trying to do the right thing by doing the exact opposite.

However, thinking about my dad wasn't any better – not after what he'd said. For so long, I'd been trying to collect as many reasons as possible to hate him, completely oblivious to how hurt he had been all this time…

Noticing the dorm was too quiet, I stood up. I didn't bother looking at the clock; if it weren't one in the morning already, I'd just wait downstairs near the fireplace for the boys. When I got there though, I was surprised to find Isaac sitting on one of the red coloured sofas. I thought about retreating back to my bedroom, but I was determined to sort out what exactly had happened at dinner.

I sat beside him. He was staring at the fire and he didn't gaze at me when I approached him. After a while, I spoke.

"Did you really not call me fat?"

He finally looked at me, his green eyes slowly making their way across my body until they finally laid somewhere on face. He smiled.

"Are we seriously discussing that?"

"We are," I said, steadily.

He smiled wider and then stood up.

"Stand up," he said.

"What?" I said.

"Stand. Up." He repeated.

"Why?" I demanded, refusing to stand up.

"Don't you want to know whether I was calling you anything or not?" He seemed rather impatient, which didn't quite match his so controlled personality.

"Yes?"

"Then stand up."

I finally did. He slipped his hand into mine, far more comfortably than he'd done when we'd arrived at Hogsmeade, which made me jump only slight with surprise. But he was already pulling me toward this painting where a man was looking at himself on a mirror.

Isaac took his wand out from his robe – he was still dressed on his Hogwarts uniform, unlike me. I'd changed into a pair of red leggings and a white t-shirt that had Pink Floyd's logo on it (some band my grandparents liked and that I secretly listened to on my IPod). Isaac touched the tip of his wand to the painting and suddenly it zoomed in on the mirror, so our figures were staring back at me.

"How did you do that?" I asked, touching my hand to the mirror-painting. My mirrored hand reached back for my real one.

"Guess I actually opened some books," Isaac was whispering now and I became suddenly aware that were the only ones in the room.

"But that wasn't on easy spell," I said. "I mean, it can't have been, it wasn't in any of our books."

He stared at me through the mirror-painting. His green eyes burning through mine.

"Do you memorize everything you read? Fascinating."

"You're getting off topic," I pointed out; my cheeks burning.

"So are you," he stated, matter of factly. He finally dropped his gaze. "Do you want to talk about where I learn my spells or do you want to know what I meant at dinner?"

"I want to know where you learn your spells," I said hastily, not really giving it a thought before I spoke, which caused Isaac to laugh.

It was beautiful laugh. Or maybe I just wasn't used to hearing people laughing – maybe I wasn't used to hearing people, full stop. But it wasn't just that. He had this sort of shy laugh, which was clearly due to lack of use, except it wasn't that sort of shy laughing when people don't make any noise. It was that sort of shy laugh that made Isaac's voice only slightly higher. I wish I could laugh like that.

"Why are you not in Ravenclaw?" He asked. "I thought you'd be."

"Honestly, I thought so too. While I sat on that bench, I was still thinking I would. Even now I'm not sure why I'm here, I'm not sure I _am _actually here."

Isaac pushed my shoulder.

"I think you are," he said, whispering again. But then he cleared his voice, before he said. "I mean, I'd be singing of joy if such annoying person weren't currently living next door."

"Hey!" I exclaimed, which started yet another argument. However, not one as serious as the one we'd have at dinner. I didn't know what had happened to me then.

* * *

**TEDDY**

As I made my way downstairs from our – mine and Isaac's – dorm room, towards Gryffindor's common room, I could already hear Skye and Isaac's voices, arguing. I was going to be damned with those two! I had no idea how I was going to prevent them from killing each other till Christmas break, let alone the whole year.

Before I interrupted their rather emotive conversation though, I put my hand inside the pocked of my sweater to make sure the piece of paper Harry had given me was still there. It was.

"Is it too soon to interrupt you two?" I asked. "I mean, I have all night, so feel free to continue." When had I become sarcastic? Clearly those two were having a negative effect on me.

I let myself fall on the sofa that stood closer to the fireplace, pleased to find out that it felt warm below me. I found it rather weird that it was so cold already and we were still in the beginning of September. I could only hope that December wouldn't get much colder.

Skye and Isaac both sat beside me, stopping their argument immediately, which startled me.

"Hullo," Skye called out when I didn't say anything. "Are you going to tell us whatever it was that was so important that it justified us staying awake at one in the morning on the day before school starts, or are you going to keep staring at us like my grandparents' cat whenever it sees me using magic on the middle of the night?"

"No, believe me, it must've looked at you the same way Teddy's staring at us now even when you _weren't _using magic," Isaac teased her. "I think it has something to do with your face."

Skye punched his arm, her fist flying in front on my face, as though she was already familiarized with such gesture. _What had happened?!_

"Hmm yeah, I see you two are very interested in making fun of my face. But no, I did not keep you awake for that." I took the folded piece of parchment that my Godfather had given me out of my pocket and opened it, placing it over my legs.

Skye and Isaac both stared at it before she said:

"That's a paper, Teddy. A not-really-but-whatever-you-want magical object made out of wood. Can we sleep now? I knew she was really tired and I knew that she was just teasing me, but I still eyed her. Why could she never be serious when I needed her to be serious?

Thank Merlin, Isaac stepped in on the conversation before I could say something that would upset her.

"Is it supposed to do something?" He asked, taking it from my lap and touching his wand to it.

"I think so. My-" But I didn't get to finish my sentence, as piece of writing began to appear on the paper.

_Mr(s) Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs_

_are pleased to inform Mr Reed that,_

_if he really wants to see use this map,_

_he better tell his friend Lupin,_

_that a Marauders son figures his stuff on his own._

It appeared in black ink, clearly written with a feather, and my heart almost jumper when I recognized the handwriting from my father's old textbooks.

Sky and Isaac both spoke at the same time:

"What a Marauder?" The former asked.

"It's a map!" The latter exclaimed.

Both of which saying this I had no answer for, so they kept talking. I was only partly listening to them.

Skye: A map to what?

Isaac: A magical place, I bet.

'_Teddy, I have something for you,' _Harry had said. '_It's something your father helped to create.'_

Skye: Well duh. It was made by magicians.

Isaac: In case you haven't noticed, we're all mixed up. How can you tell if a place is magical or not?

'_If you figure out how to use it. It'll help you in those times when you're _up to no good.'

Skye: Are you going against your own bet?

'_Up to no good.'_

The Marauders.

Moony.

Isaac: Why are you always against me?

Skye: Because you're extremely irritating.

Isaac opened his mouth to snap back at her, but I didn't give him the chance.

"The Marauders were my father's group of friends." I said, in a low voice.

"What?" They both said at once.

"Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs. They called themselves the Marauders."

"And which one was your father?" Isaac asked. Of course he did, he hadn't heard any of the stories I'd told Skye about my dad.

"Moony."

"And the others?"

"I don't know." I said, to which Skye sighed. I looked at her inquisitively.

"James Potter was Prongs, Sirius Black was Padfoot," she made a face before continuing, "and Peter Pettigrew was Wormtail."

"How'd you know?" Isaac asked, incredulous, or maybe just incredibly jealous.

I interrupted her. If anyone was telling Isaac anything, it was me.

"Look," I told him. "My father… he was a little different."

"Different how?" Despite all the curiosity, Isaac didn't seem annoying by the fact that I hadn't told him anything back at the train.

"He was a werewolf." I don't know what I expected; for Isaac to freak out, for him to laugh at me, anything. But certainly not for him to stare at me, as though encouraging me to go on. I decided he just hadn't behaved differently because he was too sleepy to do so.

I kept talking. "And he hid it from his friends for a _big _while. However, when they finally found out, they decided they wanted to see him – in form, I mean."

"But isn't that dangerous?"

"Ugh, just be quiet and listen to him," Skye complained. She was so lost in my story, that I could almost believe this was the first time I was telling it to her.

"Yes, indeed, it would be dangerous. That's why they had to become Animagus." This time, I did make a pause to check if Isaac knew what an Animagus was.

"As in, they can change into an animal, whenever they want, right?"

I nodded and look at Skye as though saying 'all those accusations and in the end, he does read something.' Yet, by the way she gazed back at me, I figured she already knew.

"Yes. So, as Skye said – and we're not sure, but it makes sense – James Potter, my Godfather's father, is Prongs, because he turned into a dear. Sirius Black, James's best friend, turned into a dog, therefore, Padfoot. And then, Peter Pettigrew, possibly the person responsible for the others' three deaths, as well as his own, turned into a rat – Wormtail."

Isaac was quiet for a moment, before he said.

"Look, I don't know why do people say this, but I'm really sorry." And I could tell that he was apologizing to me not only because my parents were dead, but also because now he understood that I had no one left to tell me about him.

"Thanks," I said, actually meaning it, for once.

"But there's more to it, isn't there?" Skye asked, looking at me expectantly. "You figured something out didn't you?"

_Up to no good._

"I did, yes." I gestured towards the parchment that Isaac was still carefully holding. Like him, I took my wand and as I touched the tip of my wand to the paper, I said. "I'm up to no good."

Once again, letters began to appear on the yellowish paper.

_And are you really?_

"What's this supposed to mean?!" I asked to no one in specific, just frustrated with all the riddles.

Nevertheless, Skye took the parchment from my hands.

"I think it doesn't believe you." She said, whispering now due to excitement.

"How come?" I asked.

"You have to swear." Isaac declared, exchanging looks with her. Skye nodded. I honestly did not understood these two. They were as likely to be exchanging secrets as they were to murder each other.

Either way, though, Skye too dug out her wand from her slippers boots and as she touched it to the paper, just like both Isaac and I had done, she said,

"I _swear _I'm up to no good." And before us, a map of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, as well as all of its current occupants, properly labelled, began to appear.

Thrilled with amazement, I bet we all thought: third time really is the charm.

**A/N: Hey guys. I hope you've been liking this story. Some reviews would be really nice though, starts to feel like I'm writing to no one, despite all the views. So please do tell me what you think! Thanks anyways!Best, Is.**


	5. Chapter 5

**_A/N: Sorry for taking so long, but I literally did some HUGE research before writing this chapter so it could be as truthful to the books as possible. I recall you that most characters, places and books, such as spells, belong to JK Rowling. I only play with them a little. _**

**_CHAPTER FIVE_**

**ISAAC**

Skye had been right about one thing: waking up the next morning had been horrifying. I didn't know what time I'd come to bed the previous night, or how long we'd spent staring at that incredible map – due to the fact that we still did not know how to get it back to being just a parchment paper, Teddy had decided to sleep with it. I'd heard him getting up earlier this morning, which I did not know how he'd managed. He'd said something to me, but I had been too tired to listen to him. All I knew now, as I slowly made my way downstairs hoping to find Skye waiting for me in the common room, was that my head ached more than one could possibly tolerate.

Sure enough, I found Skye sitting on the same red sofa we'd sat on the previous night. She had her legs crossed and was reading from a text book that rested in her lap. I let myself fall on the couch, beside her. She closed her book and glanced at me.

"How're you doing mate?" She asked, with such energy that I wondered if she had really been there with us, staring at Teddy's map.

"You're a pirate now?" I asked, my voice coming out low and dragged due to sleep.

"Aye." She replied with a smirk. "Where's Teddy, though?" She glanced past me, I believe looking forward to see him coming from our dorm room.

"If you're up to making so many questions," I said, "you ought to wait till I'm fully awaken."

She rolled her eyes.

"I don't really care how you doing."

"Sure you don't," I said, with just the right touch of irony in my voice for her to smile. "He woke up early," I said then, answering her second question.

"What for?"

"I don't know."

Skye narrowed her eyes and a piece of her hair fell to her forehead.

"Did he not tell you?"

"He might have." I responded. "But even if he did, I'm still not able to listen while asleep."

She sighed.

"I guess I'm stuck with you then." And then she pulled me out the couch and we were about to go through the hole in the wall that led us out of Gryffindor's tower, when Skye stopped walking all of a sudden. She was lucky I still had my good reflexes, even when I was sleepy, or else, I'd have crashed against her and we'd both have fallen to the floor.

She turned around to face me.

"You forgot to get the painting back to normal last night," she said. And indeed I had.

Looking around to make sure no one was paying much attention to me, I quickly ran to the painting and turned it back to normal. The man portrayed in it, though, ruined all my chances of being kept unnoticed, as he started to scream:

"Ah, now you return your egocentric little ugliness! Stealing my mirror for a whole night! How dare you?! And of course, I could not just walk into someone else's painting, not being sure I looked decent. The headmaster will hear about this!"

Pretty sure I was blushing, I ran back toward Skye, while every other student stared at me, not quite sure of what was happening.

Skye, on the other hand, had completely given in into laughing and didn't seem able to control herself. I took her arm and dragged her outside.

"Egocentric – giggle – little – giggle – ugliness," Skye said, still laughing.

"Oh, shut up!" I snapped back at her, furiously. And once she managed to stop making fun of me, we made our way to breakfast.

Silently, I thanked the Lord Skye was leading the way, because I would not have been able to find my way to the Dining Hall from Gryffindor's Tower. Not when there were six layer of moving stairs and distracting paintings between me and such delicious food. Nevertheless, soon enough, we were back in the room where I'd sorted myself.

Not five minutes after we'd started eating, Teddy sat in front of us.

"Where have you been?" Skye demanded, regardless of the fact that she had food in her mouth.

Teddy placed a couple of toasts in his plate before he replied to her.

"Good morning to you too, miss manners," he said, as though her manners had been something they'd already discussed several times. I figured they probably had. "I just came from the Owlery. I told Isaac I was going there."

Skye gave me a look of doom.

"What?" I said. "I told you I was asleep."

She decided to just shake it off, before turning back to Teddy.

"Did you mail your uncle about-" but she interrupted herself before she could spoil the whole thing. "It?"

"Yeah." Teddy said, which clearly meant: let's not talk about this now. And his timing couldn't have been better, as professor Neville showed up behind him at that precise moment.

"First year, Gryffindor right?" He asked, but then he seemed to recognize Teddy's purple striped hair and said, "Oh hello there, Ted. Glad to see you've made some friends."

Our Herbology teacher handed each of us a paper before Teddy had the time to answer.

"Hi Neville, I mean, huh, professor." But the professor had already moved on to the next students.

Shortly after, more owls than I could possibly count, entered the dining hall through its enchanted roof – or, at least, I thought it was enchanted, otherwise, there was no way we could eat in the winter. The owls flew in circles and hooted occasionally. Skye's owl landed in front of her, with a fresh newspaper in his beak.

"Oh, thanks Hootie."

"Hootie?" I asked, trying to contain my laugh.

Skye cocked her eyebrow.

"Yes, is there a problem?" She demanded. "What'd you name yours?"

"Athena," I said, "Like the Greek Goddess."

"Yeah, I know who _Athena _is." She told me, dryly, and I understood it had been the wrong move to laugh at her owl's name.

I took a look at the paper professor Neville had given to us. It was our timetables.

"Bugger!" Skye exclaimed and I noticed that she too had opened her scroll, as Hootie, now free of his task, was eating a piece of her toast.

"What is it?" I asked, finding nothing wrong with it. Perhaps it was the midnight classes. After all, she was very keen on sleeping.

But it was Teddy who answered me.

"Our first class is potions, with _Slytherin_." Teddy seemed just as annoyed as Skye, from which I deduced I was missing something.

"What's wrong with Slytherin?"

And both Teddy and Skye spoke at the same time:

"The twins."

* * *

**SKYE**

It really was a shame that our first class, one of the subjects I was most interested in, had to include the twins in it.

Teddy, having known them since he was a kid, had told me some stuff about the twins - and none of it was _good stuff. _But I can just narrow it down to a small sentence for you: they acted fake. Honestly. When they were in front of people whose good graces they were interested in falling in, they'd act all kind and polite, but when said people turned around, they became little monsters. But you've probably figured that out yourself haven't you? After the incident in the train and then the boats…

Being it as it was, when Teddy, Isaac and I made our way to Gryffindor's tower to get our books and such, I made sure to memorise a few spell from our 'The Dark Forces: A Guide to Self-Protection' book. _Curse of the Bogies _and _Flippendo _were the ones that seemed more likely to work for me, so I spoke them aloud a few times till I was sure I wouldn't make any mistake pronouncing them, assuming I'd _need _to pronounce them.

After closing the book and making sure I had everything in my bag, I waited till all the other girls were out before I turned to the enormous poster I'd hung over my bed. It featured a Holyhead Harpies player – Gwenog Jones. _Mom._

As she flew around in her broomstick around some Quidditch field Merlin knows where, her dark flat hair was pushed back by the wind, just like mine would be if I were in a broomstick right now. Mom's features were a lot like mine – thin dark eyebrows, small lips and a button nose. Our only differences was that while she had a broad figure, I was rather bony, as I've probably mentioned before. And then of course, the eyes. Mom had beautiful dark eyes, while mine were the average blue.

A noise behind the door – probably some girls coming from upper levels of the Gryffindor's tower - reminded me that I should be heading to class. So I nodded to mom, even though she was even looking at me, and I headed downstairs to meet the boys.

* * *

**TEDDY**

By the way Isaac stared at me when I changed my hair stripes from purple to a dark red, I could tell I'd forgot to tell him a rather important thing about myself. But hey, I'd only met the guy a day ago!

"How. The Hell. Did you. Do that?!" Isaac asked. "I'm pretty sure that's Transfiguration Level Five, if not upper."

I narrowed my eyes at him.

"How'd you know that?"

"I'll tell you if you tell me how you did that."

It was too bad that Skye and Isaac just would realise how alike they were. Perhaps if they did, they'd stop arguing as much.

"I'm a Metamorphmagus. I can change my appearance as I want."

"Yeah, I've read about people like you. But that's pretty rare. The last known Metamorphmagus to have frequented Hogwarts is…" But then he seemed to run out of words. "What's your mother's last name again?"

"I have the feeling that you already know," I said, which proved to be right as just a few second later Isaac spoke her name, regardless of how painful it was for me to hear it.

"But that gives you a huge advance on your O.W.L.s!" Perhaps not so regardless then…

I rolled my eyes, as though saying 'that's seriously what concerns you?' But instead I said:

"Now where's your end of the deal?"

Isaac sighed, walked to his bed, which happened to be right next to mine, and got to his knees. From under the bed, he fished a trunk that could not have been where he'd brought his clothes because that one was right over his bed.

"Exactly how many bags did you bring?"

"Shut up and come here." I laughed, and did as he said.

Once I was close enough, Isaac opened the trunk. Inside were at least forty books and loads of papers, written in which I assumed to be his handwriting.

"What are those?" I asked, taking one sheet of Muggle paper from the trunk. At the top it read: _Interesting Creatures, Where to Find Them and What to Feed Them_.

"Notes," Isaac explained, shrugging. "Writing helps me memorizing stuff. For instance, ask me anything about one of those creatures."

"Hmm, okay," I agreed, glancing at the paper I was holding and picking a random creature I'd never heard of. "Fwooper?" There was a drawing of the creature below and as far as I could tell, it was a rather furry peacock. (PS. I know that peacocks don't have fur, but I swear that's how it looked like).

"Though one. But I think I got it. So, it's an African creature, whose feathers can vary in colour. The book said nothing about what does it eat, so I'm guessing anything? Also, it's singing can drive you to insaneness."

"That was incredible." I said, honestly impressed. If Skye could accuse anyone of not having opened his books, it sure as hell was Isaac. "You should improve your drawing though. I thought it was a hairy peacock."

"Well I'm an eleven year old boy, not a movie animator," he said, taking the paper from my hand and shoving it back into the trunk.

"A what?" I asked.

"Never mind."

And with that, he closed his trunk and we rushed to meet Skye. Our class was five minutes away from starting and we still had to find our classroom.

"Finally!" Skye exclaimed when she spotted us. For a first day of class, Gryffindor's living room was still full of talkative students. "What took you so long?"

"Isaac was telling me his deepest secrets," I said, trying to keep a serious look. Nevertheless, we both burst into laughing when Skye raised her eyebrows.

Four minutes left when clueless Skye went to the hole and led the way to the dungeons.

* * *

**SKYE**

_Of course _the twins had to be there waiting for us, just before class started. They stood at the entrance of the hall, their arms crossed, blocking our way.

"Get off," I said.

The twins look at one another.

"What do you think Lucas?" The one that stood on the left said, "Is she really brave, or is that all just gut?"

And then they both laughed and Lucas said, "Gut," and they both drew their wands.

In less than five seconds, Isaac, Teddy and I had our wands in hand as well, but none of us felt the need to cast any spell, as a voice spoke behind us.

"I think you boys are outmatched," the voice said to the twins. A voice belonged to a blond haired man, with squared features and tall, who walked past us into our classroom. He must have been on his twenties and I guess he _was _handsome has every girl in the hallway started to whisper all of a sudden. Well, all but me, I guess. I simply eyed the twins and made my way inside the classroom.

Potions class was alright. We didn't get the chance to prepare any potion, but we left with the promise that we would in the next lesson – to my disgrace though, all of our Potions classes were with Slytherin. Apart from that, I decided I liked our teacher. The fact that he was young seemed to allow him to interact with us better.

After Potions, we had Charms. Another class that happened to be of my best interest. (And no, not _all _the subjects were my favourites. I just liked the practical ones better. Which I pretty much narrowed down to Potions – since they had multiple functions – and Charms – which, with some imagination, could do anything. However, the fact that I had favourites, didn't mean I _disliked _the others, it just meant that I'd rather fail my History of Magic exam than my Potions one).

Our Charms professor, Flitwick, was a very small guy, yet, I had the feeling that his knowledge exceed ours by miles. He also gave us homework, on our first day! However, same as Potions, there were no extra classes.

After lunch, we had Defence Against the Dark Arts, in which Teddy dragged Isaac and I to the front tables, and then History of Magic, in which Isaac _forced _us to sit at the last row. Also, our teacher was a ghost; but he'd been there for so long that there was no surprise in that. During the whole class, I wondered if we were going to study the Great Battle of Hogwarts, and whether I and Teddy would be able to cope with that, if we did.

Finally – and I sure hadn't expected to think this on my first day – we found ourselves back in the Dining Hall. It was not dinner time yet, but we decided to do our homework there. Teddy had read about what we were going to study on DADA's class till Christmas so that one was easy. Potions though, required a lot more from us, as there were all sorts of strange names we had to look for in our book – like who found which object and who invented the potion we were going to prepare in the next lesson. But my enthusiasm kept the boys going, and soon enough, we were done.

Isaac closed his books with a certain pleasure – so far, he hadn't demonstrated a particular interest in any of our classes.

"Do you not like being a wizard?" I asked. "Because there's people who'd die to be in your place."

Isaac opened his mouth to reply, but Teddy spoke first.

"Oh, believe me, he does. He's just not ready to show it yet." And I wondered if Isaac had told _Teddy _where he learns his spells.

When we got to Gryffindor's common room, it was still full of students from all ages, that it was barely impossible to find a way for us to seat. Thankfully, no one likes the table that stood closer to the door, if you could call it a door, so we claimed it for ourselves – the movement in that area didn't really bother us. Not too long after Teddy and I had started playing Gobstones, Isaac claimed that he was going bed.

So, shortly after midnight, the last sixth grader had gone to bed and it was just me and Teddy in the room. Teddy was lying on the couch, and swinging his wand around. Sometimes, blue and purple sparks would come out of it, which seemed to amuse him. I, on the other hand, sat quietly on the floor, my back against the sofa that Teddy was lying on, and thinking about Mom.

"Teddy," I called out.

"Yeah?" He answered, still distracted by his sparks.

"This is going to be a long year, isn't it?"

"I think so, yes."

Silence.

"Teddy?"

He stopped with the swinging and stood up so he could look me in the eyes.

"Yes, Skye."

"I think I'm going to mail my dad."

Teddy gave me the kindest smile – the type of kind that only he could manage.

"Tomorrow," he said, leaning down so he could kiss my head, the way I imagine big brothers would do, and then he too left for bed.

**A/N: I know that Gwenog Jones is described as dark skinned and some more differences in the book, but as you know, in the sixth movie, in Slughorns picture, that's not how she looked. _And_ before I started this fanfic, I happened to have just re-watched said movie, and that's when the whole idea of Skye came to me. So I decided I would keep true to the movie this one time. I apologize if this makes you mad or anything. But please feel free to tell me what you think :)**


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